MayPac remains boxing’s most lucrative fight

FLOYD MAYWEATHER’S 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao looks set to remain boxing’s most lucrative fight of all time, despite his fightwith Conor McGregor last month.

The Mayweather/ Pacquiao Las Vegas showdown, which fell short of expectations as a semi-injured Pacquiao went down on points to Mayweather, totalled 4.6million Pay-Per-View buys when the final tally came in.

In contrast, Mayweather’s challenge with UFC title holder Conor McGregor is reportedly some 200,000 purchases short of that figure following their bout in August.

Mayweather ended a two-year retirement to secure a 50th career victory over McGregor via stoppage as UFC boss Dana White’s prediction of 5 million sales at between $89.95 (€76.50) and $99.95 (€85.00) (HD) failed to come to fruition.

The live gate, which was also hoped to be a record-breaker, already dropped some $16.5 million (€14 million) to ‘MayPac’, which made a whopping $72 million (€61.5 million) on fight night.

Despite not reaching expectations, Mayweather and McGregor are both likely to clear nine figures for the showdown, to add to their guaranteed purses of $100 million (€85 million) and $30 million (€25.5 million) respectively.

Mayweather’s total could exceed $300 million (€255 million), whilst McGregor may go as a high as half that before White takes his considerable cut of the profits.

McGregor immediately took his family on a lavish holiday, whilst Mayweather bought himself a new mansion in Los Angeles and even paid tribute to ‘The Notorious’ McGregor with a massive painting of the pair on display.

As Mayweather reiterates his retirement, McGregor is plotting a return to UFC and has several suitors to his lightweight crown.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, is still active and could give McGregor the opportunity to add more money to his bank balance should he fancy lacing up the boxing gloves again in 2018.